SARA MILONOVICH

award-winning Upstate New York Americana singer/songwriter/fiddler

The Bluebird Golden Pick Contest, November 2023 Winner - The Bluebird Cafe, Taylor Guitars (Nashville, TN)

2022 Americana Artist of the Year - Capital District Thomas Edison Music Awards (The Eddies)

“Northeast throws down the country gauntlet, representing a rural heartache to rival any Nashvillian, sad-luck troubadour...The pluck and twill of strings weave around the beat as it barrels into the tragic and beautiful crush of human frailty.” - Chronogram Magazine

“[A] cathartic song about last good-byes and the perplexities of the human condition…” - Americana Highways

“Indie roots-rock with an edge” - Nippertown

MUSIC

Original Songs (One Stop) Cover songs

Original Songs (One Stop)

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Cover Songs (Artists include Led Zeppelin, The Monkees, KT Tunstall, Joe Strummer, Peter Gabriel, Neko Case, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Josh Ritter, and more…)

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Original Instrumentals (One Stop)

Original Instrumental Compositions (One Stop)

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BIO

Sara Milonovich

Singer/songwriter/fiddler Sara Milonovich and her band Daisycutter deliver a heady harvest of heart-stopping original roots rock and alt-Americana gems. Their latest album, 'Northeast', is packed with atmospheric, powerful pieces, most written by Milonovich, with words that paint poignant, personal scenes, and melodies that linger long after the last listen. Spun here are rustic yarns about the realities of rural life (“Two Dollar Town,” “Northeast”), haunting tales of heartbroken heroines (“Valentine’s Day”), and durable, highway-bound, leave-it-all-behind road songs (“87 North,” “Last Time for Everything”). As an interpreter Sara is a singular force as well, weaving her own experiences and artistic voice through the threads of well-chosen, lived-in covers of songs by the likes of Josh Ritter, Karine Polwart, Joe Strummer, and Led Zeppelin.

Sara, who was a 2023 winner of the Bluebird Golden Pick Songwriting Contest and named 2022 Americana Artist of the Year by the Capital District Thomas Edison Music Awards, is also a seasoned side musician to such artists as Richard Shindell, Pete Seeger, Eliza Gilkyson, and Jim Gaudet and the Railroad Boys, and a featured player in the recent smash Broadway musical 'Come From Away'.

Raised on her family’s working farm in northeast upstate New York, she started on violin at age four and rapidly established a regional reputation as a top-flight fiddler. At 16, Sara dropped out of school and joined legendary upstate Celtic bluegrass outfit the McKrells, recording two albums with the group and touring the U.S. and Ireland. “It was the best road education I could’ve asked for,” she recalls about her McKrells tenure. “They’re all world-class pickers, they have well-crafted songs, and they really know how to hold a room. They taught me a lot.” Between accompanying other mentors — including Seeger, on his Grammy-winning 2008 album At 89 — she made her solo debut with 2009’s Daisycutter, a disc whose moniker eventually became that of her band. After an eye-opening 2011 tour with the U.S. State Department-/Jazz at Lincoln Center-sponsored “Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad” revue that took her to Kosovo, Bulgaria, Moldova, and Turkey, she and Daisycutter recorded 2015’s Waiting for the Stars. The acclaimed disc earned her enthusiastic reviews and comparisons to paragons like Shawn Colvin and Sheryl Crow.

“It was [Bob Dylan/Levon Helm sideman] Larry Campbell who first brought Sara into my studio,” says Grammy-winning engineer and Hot Tuna drummer Justin Guip, who recorded, mixed, and plays on Northeast. “Being in the band and getting to know the songs from the inside, I felt like I was really able to get to the core of her music. This album has a lot of moods: some swampy, spooky stuff, some upbeat pop, some alt-country stuff. Whenever I listen to it, what really hits me is how much Sara stands out, as both a musician and a songwriter. That’s a pretty rare thing.”